AURIMUNE: A NANOMEDICINE PLATFORM
A tumor is a fortress whose defenses can block chemotherapies from reaching the cancer cells growing inside. To expose cancer cells to cancer cell killers, the nutritional support structures and protective barriers of tumors must first be destroyed.
CytImmune’s nanotherapy platform, Aurimune, is a tumor-targeted Trojan horse. It is engineered to travel safely and stealthily through the body and enter tumors through their most vulnerable points – the leaky blood vessels that make up the nutritional support structures. Aurimune selectively binds TNF receptors on blood vessel cells at the site of disease. Once bound, Aurimune unleashes a therapeutic payload that destroys the tumor’s nutritional support structures and protective barriers.
This “opens the gate” for cancer cell killers to penetrate the tumor and eradicate disease.
Tumor-Targeted Trojan Horse
- Aurimune travels through the body by stealth.Read More
- A water shield surrounds the Aurimune nanoparticle and hides its toxic payload. This water shield is created through a peg-thiol technology and prevents toxics substances – like TNF – from reaching and damaging healthy blood vessels and tissues. Collateral damage of this type is typically the underlying cause of dose limiting toxicity for most chemotherapy. The Aurimune water shield also allows the nanotechnology to evade immune detection, allowing the nanomedicine to pass through the circulatory system and access tumors through their unique biological support structures (leaky blood vessels).
Watch our technology video. - Aurimune is highly targeted to tumors.Read More
- Aurimune exits the circulation only at the site of disease as it is precisely sized to pass through the abnormally large gaps found in tumor blood vessels.
Watch our technology video. - Aurimune “opens the gate” allowing chemo to work. Read More
- Upon reaching its pre-determined target, Aurimune selectively binds to specific TNF receptors of blood vessel cells at tumor sites and then exerts its biologic action, which destroys the nutritional support structures and protective pressure barriers of tumors. This “opens the gate” for cancer cell killers to freely penetrate the tumor and eradicate disease.
Watch our technology video.
Gold-based nanotechnology
PolyEthylene Glycol
Tumor Necrosis Factor
Proprietary Linkers
Optional Cancer-Cell-Killing Agent
Clinical Trials
CYT-6091
A first generation Aurimune platform nanotherapy, CYT-6091, carries TNF into tumors to disrupt their blood vessels and enable follow-on chemotherapy to penetrate the tumor and kill the cancer cells inside. In a successful Phase I clinical trial, CYT-6091 safely delivered what would have been a toxic but highly effective dose of the anti-cancer agent TNF to patients; dose levels were three times the previous maximum tolerated dose. Tissue samples, taken 24 hours after CYT-6091 administration, showed that the nanomedicine had concentrated inside tumor tissues, not inside surrounding healthy tissue.
A Phase II clinical trial will treat pancreatic cancer patients in combination with standard of care second line therapy. Additional details related to the Phase II trial will be announced.
Preclinical Studies
CYT-21000
A second generation Aurimune platform nanomedicine, CYT-21000, carries Taxol (paclitaxel) in addition to TNF. Aurimune is currently the only nanotechnology that has been able to simultaneously deliver a biologic, TNF, and a small molecule therapeutic, Taxol, carried by the same nanoparticle.
Discovery
AstraZeneca Partnership
CytImmune is currently working with AstraZeneca’s Oncology Innovative Medicines Unit to examine the viability of delivering one or more AstraZeneca anti-cancer therapies into solid tumors using the Aurimune nanomedicine platform.
Other CytImmune Investigations
CytImmune has successfully linked other anti-cancer agents to the Aurimune platform. These include:
- Interferon (CYT-61000)
- Gemcitabine (CYT-71000)
PARTNERING WITH CYTIMMUNE
However, since cancer is not a single disease, CytImmune has developed a pipeline of Aurimune-based products to attack cancers through different biologic pathways.
CytImmune and the Aurimune platform offer unique advantages including:
- The only clinical stage tumor-targeted product that can carry both biologics and small molecule therapeutics;
- Experience with numerous therapeutic classes of drugs enabling them to bind to the Aurimune platform; and
- A successful track record working with other institutions to integrate existing anti-cancer agents onto the Aurimune nanomedicine, rescuing molecules whose systemic toxicity has stifled clinical development.
CytImmune is open to investigating potential partnerships. For more information, contact Mitchell Marder at (301) 825-3041.
NEWS & UPDATES
ABOUT CYTIMMUNE
CytImmune is a global leader in the field of nanomedicine with the successful completion of a Phase I clinical trial of CYT-6091 — the first in a series of products based on the CytImmune’s Aurimune nanomedicine platform. The company has more than 60 issued and pending patents for its colloidal gold nanotechnology in the United States, European Union, Japan and Canada.
MANAGEMENT TEAM
Co-Founder, President & CEO, Chairman of the Board
Executive Vice President, Corporate Development and Chief Legal Officer
Chief Financial Officer
External and Executive Communications
Press Contact
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Senior Vice President of External Affairs, NEI
Executive Chairman of ExoCyte Therapeutics Pte. Ltd.
Group General Manager, Itanis International, Inc.
President, Ira Shapiro Global Strategies, LLC
Former Acting Deputy Director, National Institute of Standards and Technology
SCIENTIFIC ADVISORS
Director General, Cancer Institute Gustave Roussy, Paris France
Director, Virginia Tech Center for Drug Discovery, VA USA
Director, Montefiore Einstein Center for Cancer Care, NY USA
Department of Molecular Preventive Medicine, University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
INQUIRIES
CytImmune Sciences
15010 Broschart Road
Rockville, MD 20850
Phone: (301) 825-3041